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I recently mentioned that I was working on a SQL tutorial video series based on my best-selling Sams Teach Yourself SQL books (and their spin-offs). Well, the videos are now online, close to 3 hours of yours truly walking you through getting started with SQL. The lessons are based on the flow and format of the SQL books, even using the same examples and sample data, and are designed to be used in conjunction with the books if so desired. The videos are on Safari Books Online and InformIT and other streaming sites.

It's been sixteen years since the publication of my first book on SQL, Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes. That book was met with such positive feedback that it has been updated three times, has spawned several DBMS-specific spin-off titles, has been translated more than a dozen times, and is part of the curriculum in numerous schools and colleges the world over. In all of its various flavors and iterations, this little book has helped hundreds of thousands learn the basics of SQL. And along the way it has become the best-selling SQL book of all time, a fact that is both incredibly humbling and a source of great pride.

I mentioned the DBMS-specific spin-off titles, thus far for Microsoft SQL Server T-SQL, MySQL, and MariaDB. Well, the (much delayed) 4th is on the way. Earlier today I finished reviewing the manuscript for an edition focused on Oracle PL/SQL (covering Oracle 10, 11, 12, and XE). The book page says it's out of print, but that's just because it's not yet shipping. It is available for pre-order, and I'll post a note when I have a final publication date.

Oh and I'm not done yet. I'm also wrapping a SQL video series, and I'll post more on that when I have a link to share.

My little Sams Teach Yourself SQL in 10 Minutes is my best-selling title, it has sold over 1/4 million copies in English, has been translated into more than a dozen languages, has created spin-off titles focused on specific DBMSs, and has even become a textbook in numerous colleges and universities worldwide. And at just over 200 pages, it was surprisingly one of the most difficult books to write, too. As such, I've been very reluctant to tamper with this title, sometimes you just want to leave a good thing alone.

It took significant prodding from my publisher, but I have indeed updated this book. For starters, we needed to update content to cover newer versions of popular databases like SQL Server, MySQL, and Oracle. I also wanted to add specific coverage for important new options, most notably SQLite.

But, the most important enhancement, and this is what clinched the update for me, is that this new edition is printed in color (as proudly noted on the cover image). Colored titles and headers are pretty cool, but where you really see the value is in long SQL statements that are so much more readable when color-coded.

I'm really excited about this update, and want to publicly thank the folks at Pearson for the push and support.

MariaDB is a fork (offshoot) of MySQL, one of the most popular database management systems in the world. MariaDB was created by the creator of MySQL to address some of the limitations and shortcomings in MySQL, and is intended to be a drop in replacement for MySQL as well. At the request of Monty Widenius, creator of MySQL and MariaDB, I ported my best-selling MySQL Crash Course to focus specifically on MariaDB. The new book, MariaDB Crash Course, was just released and is now available for purchase.

Note: As already noted, MariaDB is based on MySQL. Indeed, it can be thought of as MySQL plus new features and improvements. In other words, if you have used MySQL then you already know how to use MariaDB. As such, if you have a copy of my MySQL Crash Course or my Sams Teach Yourself SQL In 10 Minutes, then you'll likely NOT want a copy of this new title.

I've been doing quite a bit of work with MariaDB, a drop-in replacement for MySQL (forked from the MySQL codebase by Monty Widenius, the creator of MySQL). One issue I ran into is that the current Windows installer does not create the Windows service that you generally would want to use. And because I had to (yet again) dig around today for the solution, I am posting it here for the next time I need it.

At a command prompt, go to the bin folder under the MariaDB installation folder, and then run: